Sunset and Sunrise
by emmaliefje
Summary: Paige wrapped an arm around herself and shivered. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, but she was oblivious to them. She had become familiar with their salty taste over the past months, along with coffee, the drink that had kept her going, as it did now.


_Disclaimer: I do not own Charmed, unfortunately. Paige's memories/flashbacks are parts of the episodes and not my own creation. _

_(**A/N**) Takes place a while after episode #147, Charmageddon, where the Charmed Ones reverse Utopia, but aren't able to save Kyle. Most of the italicized parts are Paige's thoughts or memories from the episode, but then just written, how I thought she felt right then. Have fun reading and please review! _: D

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Sunset and Sunrise

Paige hummed along absentmindedly to the tune of _Here Comes the Sun_, which had been playing over and over in her head all day like a broken record, while she stirred her coffee and tried to focus on the words in front of her. The letters seemed to be dancing in front of her eyes. She looked up at the clock hanging over the many coffee machines. Nine-thirty. She'd been reading for three hours straight. _Well, except that for the past half an hour I've read the same sentence 20 times. Maybe I should be heading home. _

She stood up. People were slowly filing out of the coffee shop, and she joined them. Shivering as the cold night air buffeted her body, she wrapped her hands tighter around the hot cup of coffee. She couldn't wait to be home, warm and safe. _And alone, _she realized. Piper and Leo were out shopping for more furniture since their couch had been blown up by the latest demon attack, along with quite a few throw pillows. And though they hadn't truly said it, Paige suspected that they wanted to spend a night alone, demon-free, kid-free, and worry-free. They had left the boys with Phoebe, who was probably passed out on the couch by now out of exhaustion. She'd most likely be alone tonight.

Chuckling, she took off her sunglasses as she started her car. _Won't be needing those for a while if the weather stays like this. _Then, with a sharp pain in her heart, she remembered the last time she had worn them, sitting in her car. She had been spying on Kyle. _Kyle, _she thought, and memories came flooding back.

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"_Very well. We will use what remains of our power to rewind time to when Utopia began," Alpha said slowly. _

"_Does that mean Leo will be alive again?" Phoebe asked._

"_Of course," he said._

"_And Kyle?" I demanded hopefully._

"_That, unfortunately, is beyond our powers," he replied regretfully. _

_My tears overflowed and my jaw locked. I managed to cry out, "Are you kidding me? You can bring everyone that you've killed back to life, but Kyle is beyond your powers?"_

"_The further something recedes into the past, the more power it takes to reverse it," Gamma said, unemotionally. _

"_We can either bring back Agent Brody or return the world to the way it was, but I'm afraid we cannot do both," the other reasoned. _

_Grief consumed me. I had been so sure that they could bring Kyle back as well, and the realization that they couldn't crushed my hope and heart. I raised my hand to throw the potion at them, but Phoebe held my arm back. _

"_Put the world back," she said resolutely. _

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Tears pricked at the back of her eyes, but she held them back. She took in a shaky breath, and exhaled in soft shudders. Kyle was gone. She wouldn't see him again. He was a whitelighter now, and had whitelighter duties. He didn't have time to fall for a witch. _But Leo did, _Paige thought longingly. _Against everything, against everyone, Leo stayed for Piper. Through all the obstacles, he stayed by her side. _She suddenly realized that she still harbored a small hope that Kyle would come back to her. _So what if I do?_ she thought bitterly. _It could still happen. _

Her train of thought was interrupted when her cell phone rang. She rumbled through her purse for it, only half focusing on the dark road. It had rang way past the time that anyone would normally have given up calling, so she realized it must be one of her sisters. Finally, she found it and asked, "Hi sis. What's up?"

"How'd you know it was me? I'm the sister who has the premonitions,"was Phoebe's voice at the end of the line.

"Who knows? It might be rubbing off on me. So what's up? How was your day with the boys? I expected you to be sleeping like a log by now."

"I wish. I'm at Dad's now. We spent the day in Golden Gate park, at the lake where he used to take Prue, Piper, and I fishing (**A/N **He actually did you know: P). I was just calling to say that I'm spending the night at his house along with the boys. Looks like you'll spend the night alone."

"Yeah, I expected as much," Paige replied.

"Maybe you really are getting clairvoyant. Better check that out," Phoebe said jokingly. "Well, 'night."

"G'night," she said, and hung up just as she pulled into the driveway of the old Victorian house. In the dark, it looked even bigger than normal, and, she had to admit, slightly creepy.

She hung up her coat and ran up the stairs to her room, two steps at a time, and not spilling a drop of coffee, her grief momentarily forgotten. She flopped onto her bed and sighed. She didn't really feel like sleeping, although her eyes were falling closed. She took a few sips of her still warm coffee. She jumped up, deciding to get herself something to eat, when something familiar on a shelf caught her eye. It was Kyle's snow globe.

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_I stood alone in the middle of Kyle's room, looking around at the mess. All the packing I had done early was reversed. It looked exactly as I remembered it, but something was missing. _He _was missing. I saw the snow globe standing near the window on a table. I shook it and watched the small pieces of glitter fall slowly in the water. It reminded me of how I felt when I was with Kyle. Falling slowly in love with him. My tears falling quietly from my eyes. And now falling into an emptiness that seemed too deep to be real. _

"_Goodbye," I said softly. _

_A familiar voice replied from behind me. "Hello Paige."_

_I turned around, and looked into his eyes. I thought I was dreaming, yet there he was, smiling sadly at me. "Kyle?" I breathed._

"_Careful. That used to mean a lot to me," he said, nodding to the snow globe in my hands. I put it down and slowly took a step closer to him, my eyes wide. I was afraid to blink, thinking that if I did, he would disappear. _

"_Is this really you?" I asked softly._

"_In the flesh." He grinned, but it did not reach his eyes. "More or less."_

"_I – I saw you die…"_

"_That's right, you did. But as you know… sometimes it doesn't end there," he told me._

"_Are you… a whitelighter?" I managed to utter. _

_Kyle nodded. "It feels kind of weird. But, at least I can still feel."_

"_How?" I whispered. I couldn't believe it. I wished with all the pieces of my broken heart that it was true. I needed it to be true. _

"_I guess The Elders decided that I must have done something good with my life after all. Which is a relief, considering the mess I made of it," he said, a little bitterly. _

"_You didn't make such a mess." I smiled weakly. _

"_Come on. I got a little crazy there at the end, didn't I?" he said, and his smile was genuine. _

_I chuckled through my tears. "A little crazy. But you did save the world."_

_He smiled at me again. "Hence the reward."_

"_I just wish I could have –"_

_Kyle cut me off and said, firmly, "Paige, it's not your fault. I understand now that my life was supposed to end the way that it did. How it did. It was my destiny. Just like it was our destiny to meet ... to fall for each other."_

_Tears started to roll down my cheeks again. If only he knew how far I fell. " ... to lose each other?" _

_He smiled at me, his eyes full of sorrow and longing. "Who says we're not gonna meet again?"_

_A soft sob escaped my mouth. I tried to calm myself by taking a deep breath, but when I exhaled, I had not stopped crying. He took me in his arms and I held on to him, knowing that maybe this was the last time. He wiped away a tear from my eyes, looking into them. He placed a kiss on my forehead and whispered; "Take care of that for me, will you?"_

_I saw him being surrounded by a light blue glow. I didn't look away from his eyes, as though trying to print them in my memories and my heart. But after a second, he had orbed out, and I was left staring at an empty space. _

_Alone again, I turned around and picked up the snow globe. I looked at it and smiled. _

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She wrapped an arm around herself and shivered. Tears were rolling down her cheeks again, but she was oblivious to them. She had become familiar with their salty taste over the past months, along with coffee, the drink that had kept her going, as it did now.

She felt the hairs at the back of her neck stand up, like someone was watching her. Her breath caught in her throat, but she refused to accept her wishful thinking. She shook her head. Kyle wasn't coming back.

Suddenly, two arms laced around her waist and someone put their head on her shoulder from behind. "Paige…" he whispered into her ear.

Paige dropped her coffee.

"Oh my god," she breathed.

He chuckled softly. "No, it's only Kyle, Paige."

"Kyle!" She turned around in his arms and hugged him tightly, loving the way their bodies fit together perfectly. "Kyle, Kyle, Kyle… Why didn't you come back before?" she demanded of him, looking up just as he leaned down and placed his lips on hers. Paige could hardly breathe. He backed her against the wall, trapping her with his arms. He pulled away long enough to look into her eyes and smile, before he leaned in again. But as he did, Paige slipped on the pooling coffee on the floor, and sent them both tumbling down. She landed on him, and laughed. It had been a while since she had laughed.

"Way to make an entrance, Kyle!" she giggled.

He just smiled longingly at her and stroked her face with his hand. "I've missed you."

"You have no idea how much _I_'ve missed you. Finally you're back! Thank god!" she smiled down at him, but her smile quickly disappeared when she saw the expression on his face. "But… you can't stay, can you?"

He slowly shook his head no. She got up quickly and brushed herself off, lifting up her chin. _What did I ever get myself into? _"Then please leave. I'm sorry, but I can't bear to lose you again."

"Please, Paige don't you think I want to stay? I just… can't. They won't let me," he whispered, not meeting her eyes, but glancing up when he mentioned the Elders.

"I don't see why not. Leo did," she replied bitterly.

She saw the pain in his eyes. "It's different. Letting Leo stay with Piper was the biggest mistake They ever made. They told me so, and threatened me that if I went back to you…" He trailed off. "Wyatt, the greatest magical power for centuries, is a larger threat to Them than you realize."

"Well, I'm not planning on getting pregnant and having a super-magical, all-powerful baby, am I?" she seethed.

"But They're afraid it might lead to that. They won't risk it." He took a step closer to her and grabbed her hand. "Paige, please, I'm sorry."

She pulled loose from his grip. "Why are you doing this to me?" she cried out. "You died! Now you've come back, but you say you can't stay. Either stay with me and stay forever, or go and let me grieve. How can I ever move on and love again when you have my heart? Your face, your touch, your kiss, your smile, _you _have haunted my memories for the past 3 months!"

"Well, that makes two of us," he replied softly.

Her face contorted as she fought for and against everything she knew. Her eyebrows came together and then smoothed out. She seemed to radiate energy. She bit her lower lip in an attempt to keep back the tears, but they overflowed. Multifarious emotions flashed over her face: anger, denial, sorrow, love, regret. The flame that glowed in her eyes was unwavering.

Giving up all the reasons that she should not, she flew into his arms and placed her lips on his with such passion that she surprised herself. She ran her hands through his dark hair, loving the feel of it, as he traced his hands up her back, inadvertently pulling her cami out of her jeans. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. He moved lower and started kissing her neck as she pulled him down onto the bed beside her. He leaned over her and kissed her more gently. Then he pulled back and smiled, seeing that she was breathing as heavily as he was. Fire crawled beneath her skin where he had touched her. He silently moved a dark curl out of her face, keeping his hand on her cheek.

"You're not going to be here in the morning, are you?" she whispered softly.

He shook his head solemnly.

"Stay with me tonight?" Paige asked hopefully.

"No… I'll stay with you forever," he placed his hand on her chest and felt her rapidly beating heart, "right here."

_Phoebe was wrong, _Paige thought as Kyle unfastened a button of her blouse. _I'm not spending the night alone.

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_(**A/N**) So, did you like it? Did you like it? x:x jumps up and down x:x I agree, a very suggestive ending. This is one of my favorite stories, if I do say so myself! Hihi :P Review please?_


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